Five Chester girls apologize in brutal assault of resident

CHESTER -- Five Chester teenagers being charged as adults expressed remorse and apologized to a developmentally disabled woman they are accused of beating inside her Morton Avenue home last month, while a sixth defendant did not address the victim. All were held on charges of simple and aggravated assault and burglary, among other charges.

"I apologize for what I did and the role that I played," 16-year-old Anye Dennis said after waiving her hearing. "I apologize to (the victim)," she said before sitting at the defense table, head in hands and sobbing.

"I take it back. I'm sorry," said 15-year-old Jamia Davis. "I know I can't take it back, but everybody makes mistakes."

The mistake to which Davis was referring occurred the night of Sept. 25, when the six defendants are alleged to have beaten the victim, who was sitting on her front steps at about 9:15 p.m. The group videotaped the attack and it was later uploaded to the social media website Facebook. The video shows the victim retreating into her apartment after the initial blows. Her attackers follow her inside and continue the beating. At one point, a girl is seen raising a metal chair and slamming it down toward the victim.

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Rahmiiyah Henderson, 16, Jasmir Womack, 17, and Janyea Bell, 16, along with Davis and Dennis, waived their preliminary hearings before Magisterial District Judge Wilden H. Davis. After agreeing to the waiver, each addressed the court and apologized for the incident. A sixth defendant, 19-year-old Ta'kia Edwards, opted to exercise her right to the hearing, but never addressed the court.

During her hearing, Chester Police Investigator John Kuryan testified that Edwards was the one seen on the video raising the metal chair and slamming it down near the victim. Kuryan also testified that two other video recordings of the time before the group of girls allegedly attacked the woman were reviewed by police. Some of the girls could be seen rapping and talking outside of a nearby store, he said. Edwards was not initially among them, but could be seen further down the block. Kuryan testified that the girls planned the attack on video.

"They talked about getting the white woman," he said, referring to what he heard in the video. "They talked about who was going to do what. They talked about distracting her."

Edwards' defense attorney argued that she was present for the attack, and may have struck the victim once, but that she wasn't directly involved in the beating.

"She did not participate in this event to the extent that the other girls did," defense attorney Kevin Coyne said. "She saw what was happening, and she watched it."

When the victim, who is developmentally disabled, took the stand, she described the incident as a terrible beating.

"They were just punching me everywhere on my face," she said. "It's the worst beating I ever took in my life anywhere."

She is now living in a hotel.

She said one of the girls confronted her before the attack, saying that the victim owed her money.

"They said, 'You owe my boy some money,' and I didn't owe anybody any money," the victim testified. When asked by the prosecutor if she saw anybody involved in the attack in the courtroom, the victim took a good look around.

"They're not here," she said.

Davis held Edwards for arraignment on all charges, despite Coyne's request that all charges but simple assault and a related conspiracy charge be dismissed.

Each defendant's attorney also requested a bail reduction from the current 10 percent of $50,000, which has kept all six defendants in prison since their arrests last month. Dennis' attorney, Enrique Latoison, argued that his client is missing school because of her incarceration, and her family does not condone her actions.

"This is an isolated act ... The family is ashamed and the family has taken responsibility for this," Latoison said. "They don't believe that this was a joke and they don't think that it's just kids being kids."

An attorney for Jasmir "Jazz" Womack said that her client was sorry for the incident and should be treated differently because she was holding the camera and didn't participate in the attack.

"It does put her in a slightly different standing than the others involved," the attorney said.

Assistant District Attorney George Dawson disagreed with that claim.

"The camera was actually passed around to others during the attack," he said.

Joseph Mirarchi, attorney for Bell and Davis, who are sisters, said the bail was excessive for his clients, whose household income means they couldn't afford to have them released. Davis seemed incredulous at the proposition that the bail was high.

"You think this bail is excessive?" he asked. "With these charges?"

Mirarchi responded that it was too high for the defendants' family to pay. He said if they were granted reduced bail and could post it, that their mother would not be soft on them.

"They have to deal with their parents after this," he said. "They're scared straight because of this incident. Their mother is going to deal with them in a lot harsher of a way than at the prison."

Edwards' attorney argued for reduced bail, saying that she had to care for her 10-month-old daughter, who was present in the courtroom for the hearing, and began calling "mommy" when Edwards was brought to the defense table in shackles.

Davis reduced bail for Dennis and Davis to 10 percent of $25,000, but kept it at 10 percent of $50,000 for the other defendants. If any of the six are able to post bail, they will be confined to their homes and subject to electronic monitoring. They will not be permitted to have contact with the victim, her family or the other defendants. Attendance at school will be mandatory.

All six were held on charges of simple assault, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, harassment, burglary, criminal trespass and possessing an instrument of crime, as well as conspiracy charges attached to all counts. They are scheduled for arraignment in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas at 9 a.m. on Nov. 15.